Show me the money

THE WATCHDOG

Customers wait and wait for payments.

Enter.Net customers should be glad the company's Internet service is faster than its refund service.

Ted Diehl of Lehighton contacted me in mid-December seeking help getting the $60 he said Enter.Net owed him.

Diehl said he has been a longtime customer of Enter.Net, of Allentown, and when he renewed his Internet service contract in September, he asked if he could get a faster download speed.

He said Enter.Net offered him a higher speed for $2 less a month, with a one-time activation fee of $60.

Diehl signed up, but his Internet connection didn't pick up. When he called to ask why, he said he was told that faster service wasn't available in his area, so he'd get his $60 service charge back.

When he didn't see the refund on his next credit card statement, he called to ask where it was. He said he was told the money was on its way. But it wasn't. Two more credit card cycles later, his refund still hadn't appeared, despite two more promises over the phone.

The last time he called, in November, Diehl said he was told Enter.Net was "putting it through as we speak."

Diehl said he filed an appeal with his credit card company, and then contacted the Watchdog. He said he couldn't take calling Enter.Net about it a fourth time.

"At this point, I can't even call them because I'll lose my temper," he told me.

He said he had tried to reach a supervisor, but couldn't get past the first line of customer service.

I called Enter.Net and provided the man who answered the phone with Diehl's account number. The representative, who wouldn't give me his full name, apparently recognized the problem immediately because he said Enter.Net would get right on it, without me even telling him what the problem was.

He called me back the next day to say the refund had been issued. He said the request had been passed to the refund department, but it wasn't processed "for whatever reason."

Diehl said Enter.Net called him that day, too, to say his refund was on its way. It was on the credit card statement he received Monday.

"What the heck was the problem before?" he wondered.

He said he never got an answer for what caused the delay, or even an acknowledgement that an error had been made.

"Never once did he say I'm sorry," Diehl told me.

Speaking of slooooow payments, it took Marian Strybuc of Pennsburg three months and help from the Watchdog to get money she said she was owed from an auctioneer who had sold some things for her.

Strybuc said she gave 19 items to George Jacobs III Auctioneering of Barto in June. He was to auction them, keep a percentage, and send her the balance of the sale proceeds.

She said Jacobs told her he was busy with other auctions and it would be a while before he could sell her stuff, which included a bike, tools, a VCR, a table and speakers. Strybuc said she called in mid-September to check on the status of her sale, and was told it had just wrapped up and she'd be getting a check.

By mid-December, she hadn't received her money and asked the Watchdog for help.

Strybuc told me she'd left several phone messages asking where her money was, but her calls were not returned. She told me she also faxed Jacobs a letter in late November, telling him she could use the money for Christmas.

"Still, I hear nothing from him," she said.

I called Jacobs a few days before Christmas and left a message. He didn't call me back, either, but Strybuc got a $100 check in her mailbox the next day.

It came with a note of apology: "Big mess up with account, tried to call but just rang."

Strybuc said she has an answering machine that would have picked up any call.

If you've been promised money that hasn't arrived, such as through a refund or sale proceeds, you can seek help from the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org, 610-866-8780) and Pennsylvania attorney general's office (www.attorneygeneral.gov, 800-441-2555). If the business or person is a licensed professional, such as an auctioneer, you can file a complaint with their licensing board through the Pennsylvania Department of State (www.dos.state.pa.us, 717-787-8503).

The Watchdog is published Thursdays and Sundays. Contact me by e-mail at watchdog@mcall.com, by phone at 610-841-2364 (ADOG), by fax at 610-820-6693, or by mail at The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, PA, 18101. Follow me on Twitter at mcwatchdog.